July 11, 2024 • 8 mins
Joe Flint, Wall Street Journal reporter is back on the show. Joe explains what's next now that the NBA the has a deal on the table for 11-years, $76 billion, will Turner Sports be in on the deal, plus much more.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:15):
Welcome back, Greg Bellle, TheNews Tribune and Christopher kidd It Happy Thursday,
July eleventh to you. We've talkedfor months now about the NBA's new
media rights deal, and on Mayninth we had Joe Flynn of the Wall
Street Journal on with us. He'sbeen writing stories for months about this.
He told us on May ninth,you know what this's been talking might happen
(00:35):
soon, like within days. Idon't think it's going to be. It
could be as much as two months, well, two months to the day,
almost two months to day, oneday past two months, the NBA
has an agreement on new media rightsdeals eleven years, seventy six billion,
with a B dollars a little bitlower than we talked about it might be,
(00:56):
but Joe Flynn told us then whatwas happening. Now he's going to
tell us on the Beacon Plumbing Hotlinewhat this agreement means and where the league
goes from here. Joe, thanksfor joining us again. I know you're
busy man. Happy summer to you, but if you could encapsulate for us
what this agreement is and what needsto happen before it becomes official and done.
Well, first, thanks for havingme back on. I don't know
(01:19):
how lucky I was or whether Iwas just prescient, but we still have
a ways to go here. It'scorrect to say that there are finally officially
deals in principle and with NBC andwith Amazon and of course with ESPN Disney.
(01:40):
But now the next step to theleague is, you know, the
owners review them and everyone signs off, and that'll take a few days and
then it will get interesting because that'swhen the league will then present these offers,
the NBC one and the Amazon toTurner, of course, is one
(02:01):
of the incumbent rights holders to decideif Turner wants to try to match one
of these deals per their own agreement, and we will see if Turner has
five days once they review deep,once they get these offers, they have
five days to decide, and that'llbe the most interesting part of all this
(02:21):
because if they if they try tomatch, then okay, great, that'll
be obviously applying ointment or if theydecide to take legal action because they feel
like they're matching rights clause was abusedby the NBA essentially, and that the
terms of their agreement were violated.So a little ways to go yet,
(02:45):
here. So, Joe, youtalk about a threat of legal action.
Are they thinking that the NBA basicallyleverage them in the fact that they had
to write a fierce refusal and useit to get a new deal with NBC
and Amazon. Well, I thinkthe league, I mean, I can't
speak for what exactly they're thinking,but reporting of this, I think Turner
(03:07):
may have made some missteps along theway leading into these talks, But I
also think the league was very interestedin testing the waters and that the Turner
package was the one they were goingto test it with versus Disney, ESPN.
And they were very keen to beon Amazon. All the leagues are.
(03:28):
They're keen to be on these streamingservices now it's new money, and
Amazon and Netflix were seeing they're willingto pay a lot of money for sports,
and so I think the league wasgoing to do that regardless of how
Turner handled the negotiations. But whatthe league essentially did is they took the
(03:49):
Turner package and they kind of brokeit into two new packages, an NBC
package and an Amazon package, andthey kind of, you know, they
shrunk the Disney package as well.And that's where I think Turner will make
a claim that perhaps you know thematching rights cause was violated because you you
undid our deal. Uh and youknow so I think that's the thing.
(04:11):
I think Turner is interested in theAmazon package. It's cheaper. It's still
very expensive, as we know,it's around you know, one eight a
season or so. But I thinkwe will just have to uh, you
know, in the next two weeksor so, things will become clearer.
And I'm not suggesting we could seethis in court. We could see a
settlement, we could see the NBAsay nit not giving you anything, and
it all goes away. So butI don't think the story's over. Joe
(04:34):
Flinn for the Wall Street Journal joiningus and'll be come plumbing hoghlight. So
the semantics of it, Joe,you said the owners will signing off,
take a quote few days, thenwe'll get interesting. Is it a TNT
yes or no in a phone callor a virtual meeting and that's the end
of it? Or does TNT havea window to answer this? I mean,
how what are we talking about?Yeah, they have a window.
(04:58):
It's a short window. It's afive day window. So and that you
start. So after the owners havesigned off in the new deal right exactly.
I literally think it's sort of youknow, by Courier pigeon or however
it's done the here, here arethe two deals. That's you know,
landing in your office, and it'sit's none. So see you five days
(05:20):
from now. And that's basically howit will play out. And I don't
know. I mean, we've seenTNT and its parent owner, Discovery through
a lot of sort of smaller sportsdeals in the last couple of months,
most likely in anticipation of the possibilityof losing the NBA. They uh,
they're going to share some college footballplayoff games with ESPN. They just they
(05:45):
the deal to share in some BigEast basketball rights. So they are moving
in a way that suggests they arenot anticipating keeping the NBA, but perhaps
they will match it. There's alot of pressure on the company. Their
stock is way down, and it'sdown in part because of concerns about losing
(06:05):
such a marquee property. Speaking ofthat with Turner, would it make sense
for Turner to leave and do theirown thing because they do have such a
great pool with inside the NBA,with Shack and all those guys, and
they could make it work. Outsideof the NBA. They don't need it,
right or do they? Is thissomething that they have to get done?
(06:26):
Well, when you say they don'tneed it, you mean they don't
need they in the NBA in thisregard to be to do the deal.
They could go out and sign withI don't know, a Amazon Prime or
something, or another streaming service perse where they can just stream their coverage
by themselves, and they wouldn't usethe NBA in that regard. Oh,
(06:49):
I'm not sure you're you're talking aboutfor their pregame show exactly. Yeah,
yeah, Well, I think myguess would be though, that those folks
would recognize an opportunity once they're notpart of their TNTBO anymore, to go
out and perhaps command even more moneyfrom an Amazon or someone else. So
(07:11):
I'm not sure the talent might notsee a window here to you know,
get themselves a new home and biggercontracts. So Joe Flinn of The Wall
Street Journal, the it sounds like, whatever whether tnc does match or give
the offer or even have or geta chance to match the offers already on
the table, that this probably isgoing to be done. And would you
(07:33):
say two weeks if you had toguess it's real. We mentioned this,
but of course the timeline's really ofkeen interest in Seattle, because that's of
course supposed to be the trigger ratherthan the relocation or excuse me, extension.
I think, you know, Iwould think it would be done in
two weeks. I think they wouldlike to get this done before the Olympics.
(07:56):
I mean, not that there's anythingwith the Olympics that would slow up
or oh well, we got toget it done before the Olympics, but
I just think they would like tohave it done before then and the Olympics
start. But it's nearly in abouttwo weeks, I think, so.
Yeah, Yeah, this is youknow, dragged on very long time for
various reasons, and now you knowthere is a finish line in sight.
(08:18):
Maybe maybe finish line on the basketballcourt, maybe not the legal courts.
Gotcha, gotcha, Joe Flint,Thanks again for joining us. I appreciate
your coverage of this We've been readingall along. And enjoy the rest of
your summer whatever that might hold foryou. Thanks a lot, all right,
thank you appreciate it.
Welcome back, Greg Bellle, TheNews Tribune and Christopher kidd It Happy Thursday,
July eleventh to you. We've talkedfor months now about the NBA's new
media rights deal, and on Mayninth we had Joe Flynn of the Wall
Street Journal on with us. He'sbeen writing stories for months about this.
He told us on May ninth,you know what this's been talking might happen
(00:35):
soon, like within days. Idon't think it's going to be. It
could be as much as two months, well, two months to the day,
almost two months to day, oneday past two months, the NBA
has an agreement on new media rightsdeals eleven years, seventy six billion,
with a B dollars a little bitlower than we talked about it might be,
(00:56):
but Joe Flynn told us then whatwas happening. Now he's going to
tell us on the Beacon Plumbing Hotlinewhat this agreement means and where the league
goes from here. Joe, thanksfor joining us again. I know you're
busy man. Happy summer to you, but if you could encapsulate for us
what this agreement is and what needsto happen before it becomes official and done.
Well, first, thanks for havingme back on. I don't know
(01:19):
how lucky I was or whether Iwas just prescient, but we still have
a ways to go here. It'scorrect to say that there are finally officially
deals in principle and with NBC andwith Amazon and of course with ESPN Disney.
(01:40):
But now the next step to theleague is, you know, the
owners review them and everyone signs off, and that'll take a few days and
then it will get interesting because that'swhen the league will then present these offers,
the NBC one and the Amazon toTurner, of course, is one
(02:01):
of the incumbent rights holders to decideif Turner wants to try to match one
of these deals per their own agreement, and we will see if Turner has
five days once they review deep,once they get these offers, they have
five days to decide, and that'llbe the most interesting part of all this
(02:21):
because if they if they try tomatch, then okay, great, that'll
be obviously applying ointment or if theydecide to take legal action because they feel
like they're matching rights clause was abusedby the NBA essentially, and that the
terms of their agreement were violated.So a little ways to go yet,
(02:45):
here. So, Joe, youtalk about a threat of legal action.
Are they thinking that the NBA basicallyleverage them in the fact that they had
to write a fierce refusal and useit to get a new deal with NBC
and Amazon. Well, I thinkthe league, I mean, I can't
speak for what exactly they're thinking,but reporting of this, I think Turner
(03:07):
may have made some missteps along theway leading into these talks, But I
also think the league was very interestedin testing the waters and that the Turner
package was the one they were goingto test it with versus Disney, ESPN.
And they were very keen to beon Amazon. All the leagues are.
(03:28):
They're keen to be on these streamingservices now it's new money, and
Amazon and Netflix were seeing they're willingto pay a lot of money for sports,
and so I think the league wasgoing to do that regardless of how
Turner handled the negotiations. But whatthe league essentially did is they took the
(03:49):
Turner package and they kind of brokeit into two new packages, an NBC
package and an Amazon package, andthey kind of, you know, they
shrunk the Disney package as well.And that's where I think Turner will make
a claim that perhaps you know thematching rights cause was violated because you you
undid our deal. Uh and youknow so I think that's the thing.
(04:11):
I think Turner is interested in theAmazon package. It's cheaper. It's still
very expensive, as we know,it's around you know, one eight a
season or so. But I thinkwe will just have to uh, you
know, in the next two weeksor so, things will become clearer.
And I'm not suggesting we could seethis in court. We could see a
settlement, we could see the NBAsay nit not giving you anything, and
it all goes away. So butI don't think the story's over. Joe
(04:34):
Flinn for the Wall Street Journal joiningus and'll be come plumbing hoghlight. So
the semantics of it, Joe,you said the owners will signing off,
take a quote few days, thenwe'll get interesting. Is it a TNT
yes or no in a phone callor a virtual meeting and that's the end
of it? Or does TNT havea window to answer this? I mean,
how what are we talking about?Yeah, they have a window.
(04:58):
It's a short window. It's afive day window. So and that you
start. So after the owners havesigned off in the new deal right exactly.
I literally think it's sort of youknow, by Courier pigeon or however
it's done the here, here arethe two deals. That's you know,
landing in your office, and it'sit's none. So see you five days
(05:20):
from now. And that's basically howit will play out. And I don't
know. I mean, we've seenTNT and its parent owner, Discovery through
a lot of sort of smaller sportsdeals in the last couple of months,
most likely in anticipation of the possibilityof losing the NBA. They uh,
they're going to share some college footballplayoff games with ESPN. They just they
(05:45):
the deal to share in some BigEast basketball rights. So they are moving
in a way that suggests they arenot anticipating keeping the NBA, but perhaps
they will match it. There's alot of pressure on the company. Their
stock is way down, and it'sdown in part because of concerns about losing
(06:05):
such a marquee property. Speaking ofthat with Turner, would it make sense
for Turner to leave and do theirown thing because they do have such a
great pool with inside the NBA,with Shack and all those guys, and
they could make it work. Outsideof the NBA. They don't need it,
right or do they? Is thissomething that they have to get done?
(06:26):
Well, when you say they don'tneed it, you mean they don't
need they in the NBA in thisregard to be to do the deal.
They could go out and sign withI don't know, a Amazon Prime or
something, or another streaming service perse where they can just stream their coverage
by themselves, and they wouldn't usethe NBA in that regard. Oh,
(06:49):
I'm not sure you're you're talking aboutfor their pregame show exactly. Yeah,
yeah, Well, I think myguess would be though, that those folks
would recognize an opportunity once they're notpart of their TNTBO anymore, to go
out and perhaps command even more moneyfrom an Amazon or someone else. So
(07:11):
I'm not sure the talent might notsee a window here to you know,
get themselves a new home and biggercontracts. So Joe Flinn of The Wall
Street Journal, the it sounds like, whatever whether tnc does match or give
the offer or even have or geta chance to match the offers already on
the table, that this probably isgoing to be done. And would you
(07:33):
say two weeks if you had toguess it's real. We mentioned this,
but of course the timeline's really ofkeen interest in Seattle, because that's of
course supposed to be the trigger ratherthan the relocation or excuse me, extension.
I think, you know, Iwould think it would be done in
two weeks. I think they wouldlike to get this done before the Olympics.
(07:56):
I mean, not that there's anythingwith the Olympics that would slow up
or oh well, we got toget it done before the Olympics, but
I just think they would like tohave it done before then and the Olympics
start. But it's nearly in abouttwo weeks, I think, so.
Yeah, Yeah, this is youknow, dragged on very long time for
various reasons, and now you knowthere is a finish line in sight.
(08:18):
Maybe maybe finish line on the basketballcourt, maybe not the legal courts.
Gotcha, gotcha, Joe Flint,Thanks again for joining us. I appreciate
your coverage of this We've been readingall along. And enjoy the rest of
your summer whatever that might hold foryou. Thanks a lot, all right,
thank you appreciate it.
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